


shake off the dust

by shanatical



Category: Hustle Cat
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon Non-Binary Character, Gen, Meet-Cute, Other, without the cute
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-17
Updated: 2016-05-17
Packaged: 2018-06-08 23:59:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,492
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6880846
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shanatical/pseuds/shanatical
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Mama Grey did, in fact, raise some fools. One fool. A polite fool, at least. Or, the one where Avery is a goddamn idiot fresh off the farm, stops to get some directions, and gets a really fucking creepy... 'friend' in return.</p><p>
  <span class="small">
    <em>(spoilers for all the routes, understandably)</em>
  </span>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	shake off the dust

"Murr."

"Okay, yeah," I heaved a sigh and readjusted my grip on the cat carrier, squinting down at the hand-drawn map my parents had given me before Mochi and I had shuffled onto the train. Even ignoring the fact that I was now relying on streetlights and store-fronts for illumination, the task was more than a little, well…

Let's just say that it's not exactly a mystery where I get my mad artistic skills from, and leave it at that.

"Fine, I have no clue where we are. Does that make you happy? Does my defeat appease you, Your Highness?"

" _Mrrrow."_

Stupid question. The only thing that might appease him after the day we had just weathered came in a can at twenty bucks a pop.

And to think, this day had started out so promisingly. It had been a pretty exciting train ride for the first thirty minutes, watching the tiny little town that had been my world slip past and fade into the distance. After that… well, the novelty had worn off in short order, and I had ended up getting bored. Luckily, I had my phone's Wi-Fi to keep me entertained for the next hours. _Un_ luckily, there was something about a stubborn herd of cattle that kept the train at a stand still for nearly an hour and a half, stretching the journey and totally skewing the plans my family had made.

By the time we had pulled into the station, sun sinking beneath an unfamiliar skyline, my battery was little more than a flimsy little sliver of red. I had just enough juice left to call Aunt Wendy, who gave me a rundown of where she had hidden her spare key before bolting out the door to catch her flight. Because my family knows me way too well, she also texted me a reminder, and I managed to jot down the relevant information on a corner of my map before my phone died on me and I was left to fend for myself.

"Mrn _nn…_ " Mochi began to let out a soft, whining mewl, batting at the metal mesh of his carrier door and making it just that much more difficult for me to juggle both him and the bulging duffel bag slung over my shoulder.

I honestly didn't know what I had been expecting. I sighed, and finally made a decision. "…Let's just ask the next person we see for directions." Logically speaking, I _could_ duck into some all-night fast-food place and dig out my charger, but I was reasonably sure that said charger was buried underneath all of my other stuff, as was generally the case with any luggage and the item an individual might need the most at a given moment. Also, _effort._ Eugh.

My stance on committing to that particular chore of a search did a complete 180 when I turned the latest corner in the labyrinth of alleys and side-streets I had somehow found myself caught up in. The 'next person I saw' was…

_Yikes._

Perhaps not the most eloquent of descriptions, in retrospect, but certainly an apt one. He was tall, dark, and imposing, leaned up against an aged and peeling metal door, scowling down at the screen of his phone with an intensity that made a tiny, primitive piece of me quail and long to scamper back around that corner on the double. The weak glare of the phone turned a tiny spotlight on a tanned, chiseled face and below that he was built like a brick shithouse, filling out his weathered red jacket in a way that made other stupider, but no less primal pieces of me sit up and tack notice too. Mochi had fallen silent as son as he had clapped eyes on the man. I couldn't see through the carrier, but I was somehow certain that my lovable old fatso's fur was standing on end.

I didn't blame him in the slightest.

The man had a strange sort of gravitas about him; a dark air as suffocating as it was magnetic. In this moment, he seemed like the very avatar of danger, a harbinger of things best left untouched and unseen. The next moment, however, I decided that I was being ridiculous. Too many Stranger Danger lectures from Mom and Dad and everybody else back home who heard that I was headed off to the city, I told myself bracingly. I needed help, and this guy didn't seem to have anything else on his plate at the moment. I swallowed back my trepidation and began walking down the path, not even flinching— _much—_ when his gaze snapped up to meet mine.

When I drew a little closer and caught sight of a friggin' _baseball bat_ at his feet, though, I began to reassess my current course of action.

 _I could just… keep walking,_ I thought to myself, my pulse beginning to pound wildly. There was a leaden weight to my legs, a tingling racing up and down my spine, a sticky dryness caking my mouth. _Keep walking and not look back until I found a less scary person to ask._

As I drifted closer, step by step, my heart grew thunderous in my ears. I worried that if it got any worse, he'd hear it too. Still, even with terror nipping at the back of my throat, I was somehow unsurprised when my feet stopped and left me standing there in front of him, rooted to the asphalt and squeezing my little map for comfort.

"…Somethin' I can help you with, darlin'?"

 _YIIII-IIIKES,_ shrieked the stupid, primal parts of me that didn't understand how inappropriate it was to get flustered over an admittedly scorching hot man who could probably cave my head in without bothering with the bat. Even if he _did_ have a drawl like blackstrap molasses.

"Lost," I blurted out, my eyes frozen on his. Amusement replaced the earlier frustration, somehow transforming his face into something a bit softer, a fraction less threatening. I coughed and tried to remember how to talk like a normal human being. "We, uh. I mean, I'm trying to find Main Street? Well," I gave my map a showy little wave without actually letting him see any of the details, jiggling one heel in a nervous tic. "I mean, I need to find my aunt's apartment building, but I could probably get there on my own if I can find Main Street. Which I can't. So. So, um, I don't suppose you… you could, uh…" My voice dwindled away to nothing as he straightened up, looming above me with a crooked grin.

"I reckon I _can,_ as it just so happens." He stepped over the bat at his feet like an afterthought, and for a brief and shining moment I clutched at the idea that it wasn't even his. "Always happy to help a friend in need. Speakin' of, who exactly am I helpin' out this fine evenin'?"

"Avery," I squeaked out, before coughing and trying again in a slightly more normal register. "Avery Grey. I'm, uh, new around here. Obviously."

"Askin' 'bout Main Street of all places did give a certain impression." The man nodded, laying a huge, heavy hand on one of my shoulders in a very, uh… _friendly_ gesture. He splayed his fingers out and kicked the bat up into his free hand with surprising fluidity, casually resting it on his shoulder as he started steering me back the way I had come. "You can call _me_ Nacht, by the by."

"UM?" I asked, my eyes darting to the somewhat corroded metal peeking around the column of his neck.

"Don't you worry your pretty li'l head none," he assured me, gently squeezing my shoulder. "Ain't plannin' on using this old thing on the likes of you any time soon. It just keeps folks from bothering a man out for his nightly stroll, if you catch my drift."

"I get you," I nodded a few times, and had to force myself to stop before it got weird. "I got like, thirty-seven anti-creepo devices as going-away gifts. Whistles and buzzers and pepper-spray—the whole shebang." There. A nice, casual segue that let him know I was totally armed and dangerous if he wanted to try his luck tonight.

It might have had more impact, I reflected, if my hands weren't obviously full. Or if I actually had any of that on my person, instead of mixed up in the chaos of my duffel somewhere between my assortments of jeans and socks.

"That include your li'l beastie there?" Nacho asked, as we took another corner and were washed in the neon red light of some video rental place's _Open_ sign.

"Beastie?" My eyebrows snapped together and I craned my neck back to look at him quizzically, only to follow his line of sight down to the carrier I was still clutching like a lifeline. "What, you mean Mochi? Oh, God no. He's a spoiled old puffball—more 'belly' than 'bite.' Though, he's certainly tripped me enough times to count as dangerous… you know, you might actually be onto something with that one. I'll keep it in mind."

"Can't be too careful," Nacht rumbled. "Could run into some pretty unkind sorts, in this city."

"Well, carrying around a baseball bat of all things _does_ give a certain impression," I shot back dryly, before I could think twice.

Nacht threw his head back and laughed, deep and rough, like some dilapidated, long-forgotten church bell. "O-ho! Wouldya look at that. We've got ourselves a regular joker here."

"Little bit," I admitted, my mind scrambling furiously to focus on anything that wasn't the warm weight of the arm draped over me, or the sharp, masculine scent of his shirt, or the way light from passing stores and streetlights caught his teeth like the edge of a knife as he grinned. This man was dangerous in ways my poor heart probably couldn't take, even if he didn't actually intend to hurt me. "Only thing worse than getting lost is getting lost and letting it get you down, right?"

"Maybe not the only thing," Nacht speculated, his fingers beginning to lazily tap out some silent beat on my shoulder. Goosebumps rippled down my spine. "But I can see your meanin' clear 'nough."

"Mm." I kept my mouth shut and just nodded, not fully trusting myself not to make this awkward by trying to keep the conversation going. "I, uh, hope I'm not pulling you away from anything important. Kind of late to say so, but..."

Dammit, mouth.

"Nah," he shrugged, tugging me a little closer as a consequence. "I was hopin' to hook up with an old friend, but..." His grip tightened briefly and something like a snarl flashed across his face. "But that just don't seem to be in the cards right now, sad to say." The streetlight above us flickered, and the look was gone so quickly that I started to doubt I had ever really seen it to begin with. He tossed me a conspiratorial wink and canted his head to one side. "Nothin' wrong with makin' a new one in the mean time, though."

"Lucky me," I said, smiling nervously.

"Lucky you," he agreed, smiling back in a very nerve-wracking way.

I was saved from having to further that train of thought by the muted soundtrack of the city suddenly becoming a whole lot less muted.

"Welp, here we are." Nacht's hand fell from my shoulder, _finally,_ and he gestured showily at the busy avenue ahead of us, making no move to fully step out of the street we had followed up. "Main Street, as promised."

"We are," I perked up, eyes catching on the appropriate street sign. "Thanks so much, Mr. Nacht!"

"Ain't nothin' big," he assured me, rolling his shoulders casually. "If that's all, though, I'd best mosey on my way home. You take care now, darlin', ya hear?"

"You too!" I took a step onto the much more brightly illuminated sidewalk, my previous uncertainty all but evaporating with the tantalizing possibility of a nice, semi-familiar apartment looming just within reach. I stuffed my map in my hoodie pocket for a moment, before sticking out my free hand. "I really do mean it, though. Thanks. You pretty much single-handedly salvaged a majorly crappy night."

He eyed me for a moment, before engulfing my hand in his entirely which was... _Woah._ Lots of things to think about that, and none of them were even slightly appropriate, even if he hadn't been some crazy back-alley murderer after all. I pumped our clasped hands once, twice, my homemade soda-tab bracelet—the seven oldest pieces of my collection twisted together with some Baby's First Jewelry Kit-standard plastic wire—knocking over his large, rough fingers briefly each time before we separated.

"Happy to be of service," he drawled and nodded once more perfunctorily before melting back into the gloom of the alley and disappearing altogether.

I hovered there for a moment, hand raised in a weak sort of wave. Then I dug out my map and brought it close to my face, studying the details with a fervor the likes I hadn't been able to muster since my last final before escaping high school forever. I kept my pace slow and double-checked each sign I came across. I didn't actually have to venture over to the other side of Main Street, thank God, but it was a good thirty minutes before I found myself in front of my aunt's apartment building. For a moment I just stared up at it, eyes glossing over in relief, and I honestly had to fight the urge to kiss the glass door at the entrance.

I managed to retain whatever counted as dignity for me, though, and instead punched in the entry code, slipping inside and heading for the single elevator at the back. One already had an 'Up' arrow illuminated, but the doors were already half shut. That was enough to shake me out of my happy little daze.

"AaaAAHH!" I threw out a hand, scrambling across the tile floor before I could think twice. "Wait! Wait wait wait! Hold that door, please!"

It really wouldn't be the worst thing if they didn't. Waiting a few minutes for the car to come back down was far from the most trying thing I had dealt with in the past day, but luck still seemed to be with me. A tanned hand shot out and caught the door, forcing the automatic safety precaution to send the doors sliding open.

A _familiar_ tanned hand.

A familiar tanned hand, which I followed back to a familiar thread-worn shirt after I slid gracelessly into the elevator, to a familiar red jacket, to a familiar neck and a familiar, even more amused expression.

"We-ell," drawled Nacht, leaning on his baseball bat like a cane and raising his eyebrows. "Don't this just beat all?"


End file.
